Arch Linux

Thumbkin

Member

Registered: 2026-05-19

Posts: 1

rEFInd with BTRFS - Invalid Loader File

Hi

I setup a clean Arch install with BTRFS in dual boot with windows but I can not get Arch to load.
rEFInd keeps giving me error 'Invalid Loader File! Error: Not found while loading vmlinuz-linux'

I already searched around and based my refind.conf on a lot of other posts but yet I can not get arch to load

Arch is taken up a whole disk with a:
- 2GB EFI partition
- 128GB SWAP partition
- Remainder space is used for the BTRFS partition

I use the following subvolume structure:
# btrfs subvolume list -ta /

ID	gen	top level	path	
--	---	---------	----	
256	22	5		<FS_TREE>/@arch
257	16	5		<FS_TREE>/@home
258	20	5		<FS_TREE>/@logs
259	10	5		<FS_TREE>/@snapshots
260	17	5		<FS_TREE>/@cache
261	14	256		@arch/var/lib/portables
262	14	256		@arch/var/lib/machines

# lsblk

/dev/nvme3n1p1: LABEL_FATBOOT="EFI" LABEL="EFI" UUID="640A-B517" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="6b8a5338-bde0-4bc8-aead-ab980f8b3676"
/dev/nvme3n1p2: LABEL="SWAP" UUID="91c0b856-de8d-4ade-9717-0025cca15548" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="580eed9d-a68c-42d6-9703-a696e3d2e6bd"
/dev/nvme3n1p3: LABEL="ARCH" UUID="8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97" UUID_SUB="df6dcc9b-1203-4447-9945-ecb0b2b67cf5" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="btrfs" PARTUUID="5c966624-9581-4dd9-a42b-d2b1651943d3"

I ommited the other drives present cause they are not involved in my setup

# fstab

# /dev/nvme3n1p3 LABEL=ARCH
UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97	/         	btrfs     	rw,noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,commit=120,subvol=/@arch	0 0

# /dev/nvme3n1p3 LABEL=ARCH
UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97	/home     	btrfs     	rw,noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,commit=120,subvol=/@home	0 0

# /dev/nvme3n1p3 LABEL=ARCH
UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97	/var/log  	btrfs     	rw,noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,commit=120,subvol=/@logs	0 0

# /dev/nvme3n1p3 LABEL=ARCH
UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97	/var/cache/pacman/pkg	btrfs     	rw,noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,commit=120,subvol=/@cache	0 0

# /dev/nvme3n1p3 LABEL=ARCH
UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97	/.snapshots	btrfs     	rw,noatime,nodiratime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,autodefrag,commit=120,subvol=/@snapshots	0 0

# /dev/nvme3n1p1 LABEL=EFI
UUID=640A-B517      	/efi      	vfat      	rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro	0 2

# /dev/nvme3n1p2 LABEL=SWAP
UUID=91c0b856-de8d-4ade-9717-0025cca15548	none      	swap      	defaults  	0 0

# files in /efi

/efi
└── EFI
    ├── refind
    │   ├── BOOT.CSV
    │   ├── drivers_x64
    │   ├── icons
    │   ├── keys
    │   ├── refind.conf
    │   └── refind_x64.efi
    └── tools

note that my tree only goes 3 levels deep for output reasons, the dir drivers_x64 does contain btrfs_x64.efi

# files in /boot

/boot
├── initramfs-linux.img
├── intel-ucode.img
└── vmlinuz-linux

# my refind.conf

timeout 10
use_nvram true
resolution 3840 2160
use_graphics_for for windows,linux
showtools about,shell,reboot,shutdown,exit

scan_all_linux_kernels
extra_kernel_version_strings linux
scanfor manual,external # 'external' allows refind to find external USB drive with live ARCH in case we broke it

# blkid
# /dev/nvme3n1p3: LABEL="ARCH" UUID="8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97" UUID_SUB="df6dcc9b-1203-4447-9945-ecb0b2b67cf5" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="btrfs" PARTUUID="5c966624-9581-4dd9-a42b-d2b1651943d3"

# I left out loading intel-ucode for now because i want Arch to load first
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
	icon	/EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
	volume	5C966624-9581-4DD9-A42B-D2B1651943D3
	loader	/arch/boot/vmlinuz-linux
	initrd	/arch/boot/initramfs-linux.img
	options	"root=UUID=8cbb3944-ce78-4d60-9f0e-d883cee76e97 rw rootflags=subvol=arch"
}

menuentry "Windows 11" {
	icon	\EFI\refind\os_win.png
	loader 	\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
	disabled
}

Thank you for any help

Last edited by Thumbkin (2026-05-19 22:55:28)